Steroid users get a regular — and well deserved — thumping in the press. Now it’s time for the steroid cops to get their due. Last month the Los Angeles Times published a detailed two part examination of how athletes in doping cases are presumed guilty until proven innocent; are denied access to evidence and expert witnesses that could exculpate them; and are punished even when WADA agrees that the athlete ingested substances unknowingly and in amounts too small to have any performance-enhancing effect.
Now the New York Times joins in with a profile of WADA chief Richard Pound that shows him to be obsessed with rules, but alarmingly unconcerned with facts.
Both items are must-reads for anyone who cares about doping in sports.